Trees are getting yellow leaves, the grass in parks is brownish – if this is your first August in Oulu, you may think that autumn is already arriving. But wrong, Finland is experiencing the worst drought for decades! In the whole of Finland the amount of rain has been only half of the usual summer average. The Oulu region has been hit by the drought especially hard, with amounts of rain only a quarter of what is normal for June and July. Although the weather was, and still is fabulous for days off at the beach, swimming and sunbathing, it also has its negative aspects: the vegetation suffers extremely from the long-lasting drought period.

The situation is worse for trees and other plants in the city. Researcher from the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Risto Jalkanen, stated in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, that trees are simply not taken enough into account when planning the environment of a city. There are too many gullies draining the water immediately away after rainfalls. Nearly all areas are also sealed with asphalt, which stops the natural flow of water. Moreover, the tree roots are broken when putting warm water pipes or internet cables into the soil.

The total damage to the trees will first be seen in next June when the new vegetation period starts. The next challenge for the injured trees will be to cope with the strong winter. Usually trees are preparing for it already after midsummer when the days are getting shorter. However, this year the preparing process was disturbed by the drought. The effect of this summer’s drought could be disturbed growth, dying branches or even the death of whole trees. Grass and other smaller herbs can cope much better with occasional drought, because they regenerate from seeds. In general, the effect of drought varies according to the soil structure. Sandy soil does not hold the water as well soil with bigger parts of clay, silt and humus. Therefore, the condition of the vegetation varies a lot depending on what soil it is growing in.

Harvest losses
The drought has decreased the harvest in nearly all cereals in whole Finland. The plants are much smaller than usual and have fewer grain. Possibly the harvest this year will not be enough to satisfy the demand of the Finnish market, so grain will have to be imported from abroad. Also the growth of vegetables and potatoes have decreased despite eager watering. In most places the soil is so dry that artificial watering does not help much anymore. The additional work of watering and the increased price of fuel for pumps and vehicles have significantly raised the prices of production. Possible rainfalls could still be a help for vegetable growers. However, for cereals strong rainfall could even be harmful if the rain pushes the plants down to the ground. Most likely, the consumer will have to pay for that in the end.

The harvest of wild berries like cloudberry and bilberry has also been exceptionally low this year. Probably mushroom fans will be disappointed this year, too.

Hungry cattle
Because of the drought and dying grass, cattle do not find enough food on the pastures anymore and have to be given extra food in some areas. Furthermore, the second harvest of hay is in danger. Those factors give cattle farmers extra costs and worries how they should feed their animals over the winter.

Forest Fires
Finland is not the only European country suffering from the drought. In several countries like Spain, Portugal, Estonia, Russia and Sweden there have been forest fires. The fires in Estonia and Russia have even been so big, that the smoke went even to Finland and the Finnish emergency center had to answer a few hundred calls of worried Finns asking if there was a fire in Finland close by.
To prevent the outbreak of forest fires, open fire is prohibited in whole Finland.

Autumn is coming
Many farmers are hoping that at least the autumn will bring some rain to help their fields to regenerate. However, let’s hope that it will not rain all the time. This autumn will most possibly be one of the greyest Finnish autumns we have to experience anyway. Since most of the vegetation is shedding their leaves already now due to the drought, there will not be such a nice autumn coloration like usual but a longer period with bare vegetation before the snow comes in November or December.